CHAP. III. Origin of Papal Usurpations and their Progress to the time of Pope Hildebrand, Gregory VII, A. D. 1073. Origin of It appears very evidently that the greatness of the IT er from the Papacy, and its pretence to that extravagant jurisdistractions diction which it afterwards acquired and attained to, dom. grew very much out of the distractions of Chris of Christen Contests between the Kings tianity, and out of that desolation which the barbarous incursion of the Goths and Vandals made over the western world. For as soon as they had covered Italy, the Popes began to neglect and oppose the Emperors. Thus Gelasius the First took upon him to threaten Anastasius the Emperor of Constantinople, and to of Italy and excommunicate him if he did not renounce the Eu rors of the tichian heresy; when the very next Pope, Anasta the Empe East. sius the Second, became himself an heretic in the same point, and died (as Arius did) at the end of the first year of his Papacy, and was succeeded by Symmachus the First, who (as was said before) received the confirmation from Theodore: and yet when Laurentius some years after renewed his claim to the Papacy upon his old title, and Theodoric sent a Bishop to visit Rome and call a council there for the III. the composing all differences, it no sooner met than CHAP. by the Pope's good counsel they in very mannerly terms disclaimed the King's power to call them; but they received a second summons from the Pope, and proceeded as called by him: so that they made use always of the name of the Emperor when they would elude and decline the King's jurisdiction, and of the King's power and greatness when they would contend with the Emperor's. Under this countenance Gelasius had begun his contest with Anastasius the Emperor; and Hormisda the First, who succeeded Symmachus, prosecuted that quarrel against the same Emperor with the same insolence; but the Emperor Anastasius, seconded by his patriarch John, the patriarch of Constantinople, renounced his jurisdiction and contemned his authority; and if that Emperor had lived he would have taken sharp vengeance on Hormisda, whose death (together with the Emperor's) for the present silenced that dispute. ing to crown ror Justin. That which happened to his successor is a shrewd evidence that such submission to the Pope's authority was not in that time held a part of the Christian faith; for Justin succeeding Anastasius in the empire John I. imprisoned by of the East, and John the First being chosen Pope, Theodoric the same Theodoric sent the Pope as his ambassador for presumto the Emperor to treat of several affairs. The Em-the Empeperor was well pleased with the Pope, and be crowned would have that office performed by him; and the Pope was as willing to perform it, that Emperor being the first Emperor that ever was crowned by any Pope. But the Pope no sooner returned to Italy and informed the King of all his transactions than Theodoric committed the Pope to prison for having being to pre CHAP. presumed, being his ambassador, to crown the EmpeIII. ror; and the Pope continued in prison to his death. Reign of This being as known a truth as any matter of fact in that age, and reflecting so much upon the sovereignty which the Popes claim as from the beginning, they make no other answer to it than by denying that John went as ambassador from Theodoric; and saying he went of himself to visit the Emperor, and to consult with him upon some affairs of the Church, and that Theodoric tyrannically imprisoned him after his return, out of a jealousy that he had been treating with the Emperor to disturb the peace of Italy; but what is before said hath much more authority. Justinian succeeded in the empire after the death of Justin, and he reigned full eight and thirty years; during which time there is no pretence of any one sovereign act to be done by either of the seven Popes who succeeded one another during his long reign; for Felix the Fourth was Pope when Justinian the First assumed the empire, and during his whole time was positively opposed by the patriarchs of Constantinople, who disclaimed any subjection to him: and Felix being dead, and Boniface the Second chosen to succeed him, there was so great disorder about his election that many men were slain in it; and Dyoscorus made Anti-Pope; which was the fifth schism: whereupon it was ordained that upon the death of every Pope a new one should be chosen in three days. But this ordinance was never observed, for the successor to Boniface (John the Second) was not chosen till after seventy days, nor was any form of election observed; the Popes being sometimes chosen by the clergy and the people, sometimes by the clergy alone, III. alone, sometimes by the King, whilst the Goths and CHAP. the Vandals governed Italy, and sometimes by the Emperor for several ages together. It is very true that Justinian the Emperor, who resolved to invade Italy, and knew well the benefit he might receive from the Pope, sent ambassadors and a present to Pope John the Second; but at the same time John the Patriarch of Constantinople refused to submit in the least degree to the Pope; and it is as true that Pope Agapetus the First, who was the immediate successor to John, was himself sent ambassador to Justinian by Theodatus King of Italy, to dissuade the Emperor from making any war upon Italy, and he died at Constantinople in that embassy. Pope Sylverius succeeded next by the recommendation, if · not by the absolute nomination, of Theodatus, Vigilius being at the same time elected, which made the sixth schism; and within one year Belisarius the general of Justinian's army (after he had taken Naples and defeated Theodatus in battle, where he was slain,) took Rome, compelled Sylverius to renounce the Papacy, and settled Vigilius as being well chosen by the clergy, when the other was supported by Theodatus. But Pope Vigilius having not performed some promise he had made to the Empress, was sent. prisoner to Constantinople, where the Empress Theodora treated him very ill, and caused him to be whipped; nor did he ever after return to Rome, though they reckon his reign to be no less than seventeen years. In the time of his successor, Pelagius the First, Justinian the Emperor died, being fourscore years of age, after he had approved the choice of Pelagius; and because they cannot find any record of such au thority III. CHAP. thority as they would have the Popes to be successively possessed of during that whole space of eight and thirty years, (when God knows they had neither then nor long before nor long after any pretence to such authority,) they load the memory of that excellent Emperor (by whose labour care and piety Christianity was so much advanced) with many unworthy reproaches; and endeavour to have him thought an heretic in his old age, (in the point of our Saviour's flesh being liable to corruption,) rather than that so orthodox an Emperor should be thought so little inclined to a subjection to the see of Rome, But they will have as much cause in that particular to be angry with very many Emperors after Justinian; and they will find that Pope Pelagius the Second (who was the third in succession from the other Pelagius) sent an ambassador to the Emperor Tiberius the Second (who was second or third from Justinian) to excuse his presumption in having entered upon the Papacy after his election, before he had received his imperial approbation, by reason that the ways and passage were at that time so dangerous, that he could not expect a speedy return. This Pope indeed took upon him to ordain that no council should be called without the Pope; which as it was a great violation of the imperial dignity, so it exceedingly lessened the reverence to councils themselves and this Pope himself met with more opposition and contempt than his predecessors had done; for not only the Patriarch of Constantinople, but likewise the Patriarch of Aquileia, the Bishop of Ravenna, and other Bishops of Italy itself, refused to submit to him in their own diocese. We are now come to the time of Gregory the |